Interbrand 100’s YouTube Videos Have a Long Shelf Life

Pixability recent released a report studying the Interbrand 100’s use of YouTube. The study contains a host of intriguing data, but perhaps the most interesting concerns the long shelf life of a brand’s YouTube video. According to the study [pdf], during its first year on YouTube, the average video posted by an Interbrand 100 company will attract more than half of its views at least 3 weeks after having been published.

Specifically, 40% of the average video’s first-year views came in the initial three weeks post-publishing, while 30% came in the 4-12 week period, and another 30% in the 12-52 week timeframe.

Here are some other notable findings from Pixability’s report (keeping in mind these figures are limited to the Interbrand 100 and therefore not necessarily widely applicable):

Since 2009, the Interbrand 100 has increased its video publishing by 73% annually, and are averaging 8,000 new videos per month;

Media companies (the most active on YouTube) are publishing nearly 500 new videos per month, a level that is obviously unattainable for smaller brands;

The most successful brands are frequently posting to their channels, with an average of 50% more videos per channel than the least successful brands;

It’s more important to add a variety of content to a specific channel than smaller amounts of content to a wider variety of channels, and the researchers recommend that brands focus on “building and maintaining an engaged audience that subscribes, shares and interacts with the brand, where the YouTube channel acts as the vehicle;”

Facebook and Twitter sharing are an influential traffic source for brands, with the top quartile of performers averaging roughly 89 times more tweets than the bottom quartile and 330 times more Facebook activity;

While brands are posting plenty of videos, they’re not always that successful. In fact, half average less than 1,000 views;

While only 4.5% of posted videos average more than 100,000 views, the study also notes that “most viral videos have minimal business impact,” although the researchers do not include any data on that end;

The top-performing quartile of brands use about twice as many tags and playlists as the bottom-performing quartile.